whats the best memory for the maximus? i need something that play's nice and oc's at the same time, im looking at just 2gb kits for now(still running xp) ive looked at the mushkin xp pc2-9200,reapers,flex9600,and dominators. any users with the maximus and what sticks r you running?

I have a set of muskin pc2 extreme redline xp2 8000 that works nicely too....

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Here's the thing : The x38 chipset is technically only spec'd to run 800 Mhz ram (pc2 6400)....Now this isnt to say it won't run higher , but it's considered an OC'd state at 801.Mhz.......stability not garanteed.

That being said , I'd go with the sticks you think will look best in yer rig.Any one of the ones you have suggested should work.

Unless you know you're going to need the extra memory headroom, or you're hardcore into the memory benchmarks, I wouldn't bother with anything PC2-9000 or higher. There still tends to be heavy price premium for them, and the stuff between PC2-8000 to 8500 will still give you enough headroom for 99% of any OC-ing you might want to do.

Both sets are awesome RAM and sell out quickly. I see NCIX has the Redlines in stock right now but the Dominators look to be backordered again. I just got my Dominators yesterday after waiting 3 weeks for NCIX to get them in. Also, if you pick up the Redlines, Mushkin Greg (Mushkin rep) who is on the NCIX forums daily can help you out with all your timings.

Whatever your ram choice is...If you are goinfg to run XP pro / SP1 or SP2 any ram greater that PC6400 had not been accepted/tested by microsoft at the time the OS was made, that means some of (MOST) faster ram is not in the Compatibilty catalog on the install disk.

A stick or 2 of PC-6400 for the install will save you days of frustration, if you are going XP. Install OS, Install Motherboard drivers then swap out your ram to the faster stuff.

The install errors included paged in non paged area, misc files not copied, all good until first reboot then HD error, No video, incompatible hard drive format ect.

4 different install disks, 3 CD-Rom Drives, 3 different video cards and still no joy until PC-6400 ram used for install.

check out these mushkins hp6400 i picked up from ncix a while back when they were on saleCPU-Z Validator 2.1
i have to tighten the timings up and push the ram a little higher but not bad so far for $40 ram